“Dog bites man” stories don’t generate headlines, or clicks. This one should.
Big Tech is attacking The Babylon Bee. Again.
The right-leaning, God-fearing humor site is under steady assault from both the press and social media platforms like Facebook. The New York Times bullied the Bee in recent months, forcing the site to lawyer up and demand a retraction from far-left paper for maligning the site and its mission.
The newspaper relented earlier this month.
That’s just part of the story. Facebook has been attacking The Bee for years, falsely claiming its satirical articles are “Fake News” meant to trick the average reader.
Earlier this year Instagram also threatened to remove the Bee’s CEO, Seth Dillon, from its services for absurd, anti-science reasons.
Now, MailChimp is piling on. Mailchimp, a company offering email list services to web sites, briefly suspended The Babylon Bee’s account earlier today citing its violation of “Acceptable Use” policy.
What does that mean? It’s often unclear when Big Tech wants to silence a dissonant voice. Transparency is in shockingly short supply with social media platforms. The Bee’s satire is biting, no doubt, but it never involves profanity, nudity, explicit violence or other potentially troublesome themes.
RELATED: Why Comedy’s ‘Punching Down’ Rule Is a Farce
Bee CEO Seth Dillon made light of the suspension initially.
“I’d email everyone to let them know @mailchimp just suspended our account but Mailchimp just suspended our account,” he wrote on his Instagram and Twitter accounts.
Mailchimp eventually restored the account and apologized to Dillon via Twitter. Dillon dropped the laughs momentarily for his response.
Thank you, but we’re moving to an email service provider that doesn’t make these “mistakes.” We’d also prefer to be on a platform that doesn’t censor conservatives for being “hateful” or “misinformative.” https://t.co/XSI9EUjOgc
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) June 24, 2021
Did Mailchimp fear The Bee’s legal team would give them the New York Times treatment? One Twitter user suggested just that, and understandably so.
“Hey Seth. We got this in front of our legal team and they advised us to reinstate your account instead of risking a lawsuit. We apologize for getting caught in our political bias.”
— Kevin Miller (@1Kevin_Miller) June 24, 2021
Was it just a glitch? We may never know.
One thing is likely, It won’t be the last time Big Tech attempts to silence the most powerful conservative satire site around. Facebook recently announced new rules regarding its approach to humor platforms. What sounded like a positive step included a caveat that could entrap The Bee anew, according to PJ Media. Consider this key phrase included in the new rules.
…true satire does not “punch down”: the target of humorous or satirical content is often an indicator of intent.
Given Facebook’s history against conservative thought, the Bee’s Big Tech battles are far from over.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
